


Afternoon

by covered_lanterns



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:51:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4062388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/covered_lanterns/pseuds/covered_lanterns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Zayn got home, lugging too many grocery bags and not in the mood to be doing it, Liam was sitting at the top of the stairs leading to his floor. Zayn stopped at the landing, squinting up and smiling, surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afternoon

When Zayn got home, lugging too many grocery bags and not in the mood to be doing it, Liam was sitting at the top of the stairs leading to his floor. Zayn stopped at the landing, squinting up and smiling, surprised.

The grocery bags were heavy and Liam was blocking the way, but putting them down and then getting all the handles again would just be a hassle. Somehow it was okay, though, standing there with the plastic cutting into his hands, so close to where he could put it down for good but having to wait. Worth it.

Liam was smiling back and already starting to stand up when Zayn realized his shirt was moving. Liam's hand was at the hem, holding it close to his body, and as Zayn watched, the neck of the shirt came away from his skin enough for a small grey head to push through.

"Hi," Liam said, stepping back from the stairs and still smiling down at Zayn. "I hope it's okay I came by. I didn't want to take her on the bus like this."

Liam Payne was waiting by his door with a kitten in his shirt because he thought going to Zayn's was a better idea than going on the bus. Zayn started to climb, slow and measured, hefting the grocery bags a little on the upswing so the bottoms wouldn't brush against the stairs. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"Yeah," he said, when he was just two stairs shy of the top. Liam was standing only far back enough for Zayn to be able to reach the door. He wasn't quite smiling now, but it was still there on his face, the patient, sure expectation that Zayn was on his way and about to answer and that those were both things that promised to be good.

The kitten was nosing against Liam's throat, making quiet, half-questioning kitten sounds. Zayn was close enough now to see that its grey fur had just a bit of black all through it, and that Liam's eyes were as brown and as warm as they always were. He was close enough to see Liam's hand curled around the kitten's shirt-hidden body and the hopeful tilt to the corners of his lips, ready to slide back into a smile at a moment's notice.

"Yeah," he said again, and had to clear his throat. Liam's smile was already back as Zayn climbed another step, the next, closed the distance between them. "Yeah, I'm glad you came. Did you --"

He'd been meaning to ask if Liam had found the kitten, maybe go on to where he had found her that Zayn's flat made the most sense, but then they were there -- him at the top of the stairs with his hands full of grocery bags, Liam much too close with a kitten snuggling into his collar bone, and Zayn had spent weeks now doubting whether kissing Liam would be a good idea or a catastrophe in the making, but really, he was only human.

He had to shift his balance so the bags wouldn't bang against Liam's legs, and leaning in was a complete farce with no way to brace himself and the risk of tipping them both over if he went too far, and the kitten mrow'ed in faint alarm as Zayn hovered nearer, nearly brushing against it. When it was all said and done he was expecting Liam to be gone already, to lean away or step back and be wearing that concerned frown he had when people weren't as happy as he hoped to make them, opening his mouth to apologize for the crossed wires.

Liam was closing in instead, though, awkward lean to awkward lean, free hand coming up to cup Zayn's shoulder and brace them both against each other. His smile was startled but wide and ridiculous and pleased, and he was moving too slowly, much too slowly after all that time. Zayn went in and up too quickly and almost tipped them over after all. And then he was kissing Liam, still upright somehow; unsurprising, really. Liam wouldn't have let him fall.

The kitten made a sound of clear complaint at the shifting of its world. Zayn's neck was already starting to ache, stretched out to get him to Liam's mouth without crushing the kitten between them. He couldn't feel his fingers. It was all pretty fantastic, really.

Liam breathed out a tiny laugh when they pulled apart, his head coming up to look at Zayn and then ducking down again, just a bit. He looked shy and hopeful, and still pleased, so pleased that Zayn's heart was doing something weird and disconcerting inside his chest with it.

"Is that what it took, then?" Liam said. His cheeks were pink. He was biting his lip a little.

"Yeah," Zayn said. "Must've been."


End file.
